Mariners win again and look smooth in doing so

The Mariner record is now 4-0-1 after a 5-3 win over the White Sox in Glendale, Ariz., and while nothing is ever as easy as it looks, the Mariners are making it look reasonably easy these days.

In winning for the fourth consecutive time, Seattle came within one pitch of a shutout, the one pitch being a three-run Jim Thome homer off Ryan Rowland-Smith in the fourth inning after the club had built up a 5-0 lead early.

Randy Messenger came in with two out and two on in the ninth inning and needed just four pitches to close out the save.

”It’s a role I want to be considered for, for sure,” Messenger said afterward. ”If I just keep letting my pitching do the talking, it’ll be OK.”

Seattle scored four times in the third inning, two runs coming on a Reegie Corona double and two more when Chicago first baseman Konerko was charged with an error on a hard-hit ball off the bat of Adrian Beltre.

Beltre took a head-first slide into second base on the play, something that made manager Don Wakamatsu wince.

”You have to hold your breath sometimes,” he said. ”But he’s got to play the game that way. There’s no stopping him.”

Beltre, of course, is coming off left shoulder and left thumb surgery at the end of the 2008 season, so any time he puts either area at risk, the Mariners are going to wince just a little.